Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces auditions for 2020-21 season
Application deadline: Friday, March 27, 2020
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) announced auditions for the 2020-21 season. Auditions will be held at Severance Hall during the month of May. Instrumentalists from area middle and high schools who study privately and participate in their school’s music program — and are prepared to commit to an ambitious rehearsal and concert schedule — are invited to audition. Auditions will be heard for the following instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp, flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, percussion, and keyboard. Applications must be received by Friday, March 27, 2020; the application fee is $40. Those interested should contact COYO Manager Lauren Generette by phone at 216-231-7352 or email at
coyo@clevelandorchestra.com for information, or by downloading audition materials at
clevelandorchestrayouthorchestra.com (click on “Auditions”).
During the 2020-21 season, COYO will give three performances at Severance Hall and additional concerts across Northeast Ohio with Music Director Vinay Parameswaran. Mr. Parameswaran is currently serving as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and finishing his third season as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Annual concerto auditions offer members the opportunity to appear as soloist with COYO, and a chamber music program coached by Cleveland Orchestra musicians provides participating members additional performance opportunities.
COYO musicians enjoy a very close artistic relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra. Members of The Cleveland Orchestra serving as coaches to the Youth Orchestra and leading weekly sectional rehearsals include: Peter Otto and Kathleen Collins (violin); Stanley Konopka and Mark Jackobs (viola); Richard Weiss and David Alan Harrell (cello); Mark Atherton (bass); Jessica Sindell (flute, COYO alumna); Frank Rosenwein and Jeffrey Rathbun (oboe); Robert Woolfrey (clarinet); Jonathan Sherwin (bassoon); Shachar Israel (trombone); Hans Clebsch (horn); Lyle Steelman (trumpet); Yasuhito Sugiyama (tuba); Trina Struble (harp); Joela Jones (keyboard); and Thomas Sherwood (timpani/percussion).
“The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is an extremely talented ensemble,” said Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst. “They are at the level of, or better than, some professional musicians I have heard. They have access to musicians from one of the greatest orchestras in the world — The Cleveland Orchestra — and they learn what it means to be an orchestra musician on the highest possible level. It is a unique concept that a top orchestra has its own youth orchestra, and they are all trained exactly the same way.”
“COYO has been the most intensive ensemble I’ve played in, and held the most professional and determined group of young musicians I have had the opportunity to meet and make music with,” said Colin Henley, COYO violist. “It ultimately solidified my decision to pursue music in college and as a career. I strongly recommend this group of musicians to anyone who is determined to play intense and truly enjoyable music, and craves a true pre-professional experience.”
About The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Founded in 1986 by former Cleveland Orchestra resident conductor Jahja Ling, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) is a full symphonic ensemble comprised of approximately 100 young musicians drawn from 36 communities in 10 counties across Northern Ohio. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra provides serious young music students of middle-high school age with a unique pre-professional orchestral training experience where they rehearse and perform in historic Severance Hall, are coached by the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra, and are led by the Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is part of a broad array of Cleveland Orchestra education and community programs designed to touch every child with music, foster a lifetime of engagement with music and The Cleveland Orchestra, unite our community through music, and nurture outstanding young musicians. In addition to the Youth Orchestra, other programs include the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus and Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, Crescendo! (providing access to instruments and instruction for disadvantaged youth), the Music Explorers series for children ages 3 to 6, the PNC Grow Up Great ‘Musical Neighborhoods’ program in inner-city Cleveland preschool classrooms, Cleveland Orchestra Family Concerts for ages 7 and up, Education Concerts for schoolchildren, Mindful Music Moments Neighborhood Partners Program, Concert Previews and Music Study Groups for adults, and more. Each year, The Cleveland Orchestra reaches more than 100,000 people with its education and community programs. For more information, call the Orchestra’s Department of Education and Community Programs at 216-231-7355 or visit
https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/education-and-community/overview/.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles.
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